Clarity Amid Complexity:

Timeframe: 3 months prep, 1 day live My Role: Lead Facilitator and Workshop Designer

I transformed a disjointed vision into a strategic roadmap using a meticulously designed and orchestrated workshop with key business stakeholders. Informed by data, agency challenges and months in the making, we were able to unblock longstanding product challenges and leave with prioritized product goals.

The Challenge: Misaligned Goals and Shifting Priorities

The client, the Head Start agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, managed a data platform designed to monitor and evaluate service needs and trends. Yet the product’s potential was consistently undermined by misaligned goals and shifting priorities. Without a clear vision, the platform’s data collection often catered to inconsistent demands, leading to a fragmented user experience and inefficiencies for the development team.

One of the key challenges I had to address was the root issue: What strategic questions did stakeholders truly need the data to answer? Without this clarity, designing an effective system to meet both user and organizational needs was nearly impossible.

The Approach: A Workshop Built on Preparation

To address this, I created a workshop—not as a quick fix but as the culmination of weeks of preparation. The ultimate goal was to align 15 stakeholders on strategic priorities. Here’s how the project unfolded:

1. Pre-Workshop Preparation: Understanding the Landscape
   I worked closely with stakeholders to craft exercises tailored to uncover priorities. This process involved:

• Collaborative Design: Engaging stakeholders to co-create exercises, ensuring relevance and buy-in.

• Historical Analysis: Developing a presentation detailing the product’s evolution, challenges, and achievements to set a shared foundation of knowledge.

• Vision Funnel Creation: Introducing a structured framework to articulate the overarching goals, starting from the department's strategic objectives and narrowing down to the product level.

2. Day of the Workshop: Driving Engagement and Clarity
   I broke the workshop into two parts, both of which I facilitated:

• Broad Stakeholder Session: Participants ranked strategic questions based on mission-critical needs versus "nice-to-haves," using a forced-ranking method.

• Focused Product Owner Session: The smaller group synthesized stakeholder feedback to refine priorities visually, providing immediate clarity on consensus areas.

3. Methodological Tools:

• A "see, decide and do" framework ensured participants considered how each question informed action and decision-making.

• The vision funnel linked product-level goals to broader organizational objectives, ensuring alignment at all levels.

The Outcome: Strategic Prioritization and Renewed Focus

By the end of the workshop, we had achieved something previously elusive: a set of prioritized strategic questions that directly addressed the organization’s most pressing needs. These included:

• Mission-critical areas of focus, with clearly defined next steps.

• A roadmap connecting product data collection to actionable business decisions.

• A shared understanding of roles, with insight into how different teams approached prioritization.

This collaborative effort clarified immediate goals while serving as a model for aligning long-term strategies, creating a ripple effect across the organization.

Why a Researcher is Key to Stakeholder Success

This project underscores the invaluable role of a researcher in facilitating alignment across stakeholders. From designing exercises that surface hidden priorities to translating complex challenges into clear, actionable goals, researchers bring a structured, empathetic lens that organizations often lack. Here are the key benefits:

• Neutral Facilitation: Acting as a bridge between teams with differing priorities.

• Data-Informed Decision-Making: Ensuring decisions are based on insights, not assumptions.

• Clarity Through Process: Guiding teams through structured frameworks to uncover and articulate priorities.

From Chaos to Clarity

This project highlights how I use research as a strategic tool. With thoughtful preparation, structured collaboration, and a focus on actionable outcomes, even the most complex challenges can yield clear, unified priorities. By investing in research-led approaches, organizations can achieve alignment, efficiency, and meaningful progress—transforming potential into reality.

Day of the Workshop: Driving Engagement and Clarity

The workshop was split into two parts:

• Broad Stakeholder Session: Participants ranked strategic questions based on mission-critical needs versus "nice-to-haves," using a forced-ranking method.

• Focused Product Owner Session: The smaller group synthesized stakeholder feedback to refine priorities visually, providing immediate clarity on consensus areas.

Methodological Tools:

• A "see, decide and do" framework ensured participants considered how each question informed action and decision-making.

• The vision funnel linked product-level goals to broader organizational objectives, ensuring alignment at all levels.